reacted first with caution when talking about the OceanCourse. “I heard it was really hard, and they were right,” hesaid earlier this year after his first round there. “It’s brutal.”It is worth remembering that the reviews were just asdirect when the Ocean Course hosted the 2007 SeniorPGA Championship. Thanks in part to 30 mile-per-hourwinds, the first-round scoring average was a ghastly 77.24.By week’s end, led by winner Denis Watson at nine under,only six players finished in red figures. “I knew this coursewould kick my ass; it kicks everybody’s ass,” said Peter Ja-cobsen, who shot 299 for the week on a course that played475 yards shorter than it will at the PGA.

“It’s great they say it’s the hardest golf course in the world,but we’re still getting all the play we can handle—repeat playis up too,” Dye cackles. “But they’ll score good on it, I’m sure.”The design’s mind games certainly get plenty of fuelfrom the wind, which Dye contends can sometimes makethe course play 1,500 yards longer from one day to the nextwithout changing a tee box. That’s what happened duringthe Ryder Cup when the practice rounds were conducted ina northwesterly wind that by Sunday had turned out of thesoutheast. But Dye says that likely won’t be the case at thePGA Championship. The August winds probably will be outof the northwest, meaning the round will start downwind,then turn into the wind for Nos. 6 through 13 and then playdownwind for the final five holes.

But that’s not a guarantee. What is certain is that any
breeze will be felt. Thanks to Pete’s architect-wife Alice,
there is no place to hide on the Ocean Course. It was her
idea to build up the fairways because having them dip
below the dunes would hide the arresting views of the surrounding Atlantic. Pete agreed, and as a result nettlesome
crosswinds can have even more of an effect. The prevailing
wind means less at Kiawah; on a recent day, there were
breezes from three different directions in 12 hours.

Alice, who recalls how she and her husband lived on
site during the two years of construction, working 18-hour

48august 6, 2012 � GolfWorld.com

Plenty of options: The Ocean Course’s 557-yard
second hole is an example of Dye’s “make ’em
think” approach. Bold players can take a shot at
getting home in two, but not without some risk.

days with a crew that sometimes would set up lights tokeep moving the dirt, says her husband is best at showingyou what he wants you to see. “Every hole is a separateindividual unit there,” she says. “The wind, the angles, theviews are all different. He’s very good on those angles. Hemakes it seem more difficult than it really is.”Dye wants you to think you can do something you’re notreally sure you can do. Hence all the diagonals on a layoutthat seems to move only in two parallel lines. You are onlyat the second tee when you are faced with a choice of howmuch of the marsh to challenge on the slithering par 5, ahole Dye calls “the biggest diabolical thing on the wholegolf course.” But even if you master the moment and go forthe green in two, a less-than-bold effort leaves you a ticklishpitch or worse a long bunker shot to a slightly plateauedgreen surrounded by more danger. Another example is the12th, where the spacious fairway makes the approach seemterrifically narrow (it’s actually 30 yards wide, although thepond right of the green looms like a balloon payment). Thehole presents an especially intriguing proposition if a newtee from about 300 yards is put into play.

Even on Dye’s most straightforward holes, such as the par- 3
17th that was the scene of so much calamity during the ’91
Ryder Cup, he knows the golfer is always looking for an out.
Thanks to the mammoth freshwater lake, one of many Dye
was able to create after Hurricane Hugo ripped through the
property in the early days of construction, the green looks to
be the width of a tee box, but is actually 10,000 square feet.
When holes move in the same general direction, Dye still
mixes things up: The sixth hole asks for a demanding draw,
while the seventh encourages a let-the-shaft-out fade.

Frye, the course’s original superintendent, says Dye is
the “master of illusion” with two powerful attributes. “He
was a good golfer, so he saw playability, and he has a very
creative mind,” Frye says. “So if you’re very creative and
you understand playability and you put those two together,
it’s an interesting recipe.”